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Choppergate

A scandal involving NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams to assert falsely that helicopter was hit by an RPG during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Over the years, Williams says different versions of his story: in 2003, immediately after the incident, said he was on a helicopter behind a hit by an RPG. "The Chinook before us was almost wiped out from the sky," he said on NBC. In 2013, he told David Letterman who was on the helicopter that was hit by an RPG. Then in 2015, he told viewers "a terrible time about ten years back during the invasion of Iraq when we were traveling in a helicopter was forced down after being hit by a RPG"

On February 4, 2015, Williams publicly apologized for having confused exactly which had helicopter, but insisted that he was in a helicopter directly behind it. "I was in fact the Chinook behind the bird took the RPG tail housing just above the ramp," Williams wrote. However, it was this version of the story that claimed fired upon him. His apology was questioned when two of the pilots on his helicopter said he does not recall their convoy of helicopters coming under fire.

is one thing to make a mistake and apologize for it. is a much more serious crime of deceiving people and then again with the misleading claim to come clean.— primarily for anchoring NBC Nightly News. February 7, 2015, Williams announced that he temporarily step down from his role as news anchor to remove a distraction from NBC news coverage and to allow the network to study the issue.

On December 2, 2004, Brian Douglas Williams, who took over the position of anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. In 2005, NBC News the Peabody Award for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, the Award Committee said that Williams and NBC staff receive "high levels of journalistic excellence" in their relations.

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